


Gentles, do not reprehend

by equals_eleven_thirds



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, best of both bcos i love her, eris gets to be dramatic and evil-ish but also sad and soft, not a good fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22704019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/equals_eleven_thirds/pseuds/equals_eleven_thirds
Summary: ...if you pardon, we will mend.A story of Doctor Kuan Hui, his two weeks locked in the tech wing, and Eris.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	1. If we have unearnèd luck

**Author's Note:**

> maybe i just love eris, is all. also hui. maybe i just wanted both of them to have a little less pain, and a little more time.

“Just do it, Victoire! I’ll be fine.”

“…Eris. Give us a clue.”

“Just a moment.”

And Kuan is alone. Again. But he’ll be fine, the day and a half was worrying but not terrible, and at least now he knows what’s going on. He knows everyone is fine (for a given value of fine), and he’ll only be gone ten seconds. All he has to do is wait it out.

Two days later and he is opening and closing the hatch, over and over. He knows it will just lead him back here if he goes through it. He knows it won’t take him anywhere. He knows he can’t escape.

Open. Close. Open. Close. The only thing here he can change, and it’s not really changing, is it.

“Doctor Hui.”

There shouldn’t be a voice here. There shouldn’t be a voice, and so he jumps and spins around but he can’t even manage a noise (he spent about twelve hours just talking out loud to fill the silence and now his throat is dry and scratchy and his lips hurt and his tongue feels heavy and thick in his mouth).

A young woman is standing there, looking at him. “ _So_ sorry to startle you, but I think you’ll want to talk to me.”

“Wh— wh—” Kuan coughs, musters up some saliva. “Who…?”

“Oh, of course.” She holds out a cup of water to him (was that there before? he doesn’t think it was there before) and waits until he takes a sip and swallows before continuing, “I’m Eris.”

Weirder things have happened (are happening right now) than an AI looking human. It’s all in his head, right? He shakes his head slowly, takes another drink. “Is this another test?”

“Hm? Oh, no. You’re not in the test, really. I mean, you are, but we already know you can play well with others, Doctor Hui. You’re more of… a question on the test than a participant.”

“…thanks.”

“Don’t be _offended_. You know what they say about squeaky wheels. Captain Lovelace and Officer Lambert decided to be _problem children_ , so they have to go through the whole ordeal.”

“What about Victoire?”

Eris blinks at him and then smiles. “Caught that, did you? Yes. She wasn’t originally on the roster, but initial brain scans and some minor prodding during preliminary testing show her potential for unorthodox and, frankly, borderline genius problem solving is… let’s just say some of the higher ups might be extremely interested in Doctor Fourier’s development in the future.”

That doesn’t sound _good_ for Victoire’s future, honestly, but Kuan isn’t about to say that to someone (something?) working for them. “…right. Which is why you made her in charge of asking for hints?”

“You mean asking for you to be isolated here for an entire week? Yes. It’s very important we see if she can make necessary sacrifices when it _really_ comes down to it.”

“Fantastic.” He doesn’t point out that she just called him a _necessary sacrifice_. She definitely already knows he noticed. “So if I’m just a, a test question, why are you here?”

“Well, Doctor Hui, I think the real question here is, would you call yourself an actor?”

“Would I— What?”

“Would you call yourself an actor? It’s an important question. For you.” She sits down on a chair (that definitely wasn’t there before) and beams up at him. “See, since you’re not being tested, I’m not _actually_ supposed to break your mind into little bitty pieces. If I can help it. But since your three coworkers _are_ being tested, and you _are_ a part of that test, they need to _think_ you’re in danger of being slowly driven to insanity by days and days and _days_ of isolation. With me so far?”

“More sort of absolutely against you, but I follow.”

“Ooh, I _knew_ you were clever! Not as clever as Doctor Fourier, but you should probably be grateful for that. Be _cause_ what that means is, for your week of imprisonment here—or longer, if they decide to throw you back for more _vital_ information—I can keep you company. You can have someone to talk to, food and water—even though you don’t need it, your brain thinks you do—and my personal memory files of books, games, movies, whatever you need to keep yourself occupied, entertained, and more or less sane for your stay here.”

Of course there’s a _but_ coming. Kuan knows it, and Eris knows it, and she’s still smiling up at him and waiting for his reply. Finally he sighs and gives in: “But…?”

“ _But_ you have to act like you were all alone and lonely and slowly losing it here when you go back. Panic! Hyperventilate! Beg them not to abandon you! You’re Doctor Fourier’s test, and we can’t have that messed up, not when she’s so promising. When she sends you back here, she has to really _mean_ it.” She sighs melodramatically, rests her chin on her palm. “If you can’t do that for me, I’m going to have to actually leave you here, this time with the knowledge that you _could_ have saved yourself.”

He hates her, then. Not for trapping him here, isolating him, threatening to leave him even more alone. He hates her for using him against Victoire, using him to _test her potential_ , as if all of them are just toys for Goddard Futuristics to play with. Hates her for even offering him this deal, making him choose whether to suffer needlessly or make himself complicit in Victoire’s suffering. Hates the certainty in her voice: _when she sends you back here._ Hates the way that makes him wonder if, even to Victoire, he’s a necessary sacrifice she’s willing to make.

He hates himself a little, too, as he closes his eyes and nods. “Fine. Yes. I can act.”

“Excellent!” And now there are two chairs, and a table, and a chess board set up and waiting. And Kuan sits down.


	2. No more yielding but a dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a bit of an epilogue. with chess.

“So. Two weeks, now. Two clues. You think they’ll solve it this time?” Eris sets her knight down and frowns a little at the board.

“..yeah.” Since they started this… ordeal, Kuan has gotten better at chess. Or more accurately, he’s gotten better at chess against Eris. He knows how she moves. He knows her wide-open rook is a distraction. “I think they will. I think they have to, there probably isn’t time for a third.”

“There could be, if Doctor Fourier asked fast enough. But… well, I think you’re right.” If he’s gotten better at chess, Eris has gotten quieter. Maybe she just can’t keep up that high-energy rogue-AI persona. Maybe she gets tired too.

He takes her pawn instead. “Aren’t you worried I’ll solve it myself, with all my free time here?”

“…no. I don’t think you have all the information they do.”

“Really? Is that a clue?”

She laughs softly. “Not much of one. But sure. Make them _share more_ when you get back.”

“If I have time. “

“If you have time.”

“Right.” A few more moves, a few more pieces lost. “Speaking of time.”

“Hm?”

“Yours. Here. And mine. Am I going to—are you going to— Can I tell Victoire? Later? That she never really sacrificed me?”

“Oh.” She toys with her bishop, then moves it just one space. “The thing is, she did. By believing that she was, she did. That’s what the test was about, you know.”

“Sure, yeah, but can I tell her about, about you sparing me?” He takes the bishop. Reckless, probably.

“Do you want to? To let her know you could have spared _her_ the agony of the choice?”

“…I don’t know. Maybe. So she’ll at least—feel better. Maybe. Or know what she was being tested for. But I mean, what will happen to you if I tell her? I don’t, I don’t _like_ you, but I did spend two weeks with you.”

“More like one and a half.” She smiles at him, takes his queen. “But that’s not what you should be worrying about.”

“No?”

“Mm… no. What you should be worrying about is: if I’m in your brain, here, who’s to say I won’t just rewrite your memories? Maybe you’ll never be able to tell her. Maybe I’ll erase this and put in fresh new made-up trauma, just for you. Maybe—oh.”

“Yeah. Checkmate.”

“You’re getting good.” The board clears itself, resets for a new game. “Maybe this will all fade away, all the details gone, all the little hints about Command’s plans gone. Like a bad dream.”


End file.
